I once set out to see the film Picnic at Hanging Rock directed by Peter Weir because I heard it was very atmospheric in nature. I have found very few films that have the ability to prove an engaging atmosphere from the film's opening to close. After watching Picnic at Hanging Rock I felt cheated. Despite the film's sometimes beautiful wilderness settings, the film ultimately failed in what it set out to do. It was not until I saw the “horror” film Long Weekend did I feel that I got my fill of mysterious Australian nature.
In Long Weekend, a married couple in a deteriorating relationship set out for an Australian beach in hopes of fixing things. The couple is fairly cosmopolitan and seems to lack any type of roots with nature. By littering and hurting animals, they show their arrogance towards the outdoors. The man in the relationship attempts to feel and display power by shooting off a fancy rifle for no logical reason. It is not until things start getting on the Australian coastline does the couple realize the power of nature over man.
Long Weekend has one of the most beautiful settings I have ever seen in a film. The Australian beach featured in the film looks like it has yet to be tampered by the corrosive hands of man. The water is of a pure dazzling blue that looks quite inviting to anyone that enjoys swimming. If someone were to flip through television channels and catch Long Weekend for a second, they might think that they are watching a nature documentary. The cinematographer of the film was not goofing around trying to shoot another “B” grade “nature attacks” film while shooting Long Weekend. The aesthetically pleasing nature of the film works in splendid contrast to the anti-nature attitude of the married couple.
The woman is found out in the film to have an abortion. Not only has the couple denied the law of nature, but the reality of their own nature. The couple are the quintessential products of abstractive intellectualism and rootless cosmopolitanism. They are products of the death of western culture and the decline of civilization. It is no surprise that the birthrates of Europeans and people of European descent are dropping with each generation of the world. When one no longer feels their roots, their purpose of existence ceases to be. The married couple in Long Weekend are incapable of creating a family (let alone staying together), shun respecting natural law, and cannot sustain themselves without material objects. In a sense, nature puts them out of their misery.
I was reminded of Long Weekend recently after watching the exciting and intense British horror film Eden Lake. The couple featured in the latter not only lack a connection with nature but also the sometimes viciousness of the man of nature who has yet to be deracinated from his “backwoods” roots. Both Long Weekend and Eden Lake feature a couple's demise due to their killing of an animal(s). Although man has dominated animal, it seems that man forgets that he is also an animal. It only takes a long weekend (or a few minutes) for a man to fare against nature and its various exotic creatures.
In Long Weekend, a married couple in a deteriorating relationship set out for an Australian beach in hopes of fixing things. The couple is fairly cosmopolitan and seems to lack any type of roots with nature. By littering and hurting animals, they show their arrogance towards the outdoors. The man in the relationship attempts to feel and display power by shooting off a fancy rifle for no logical reason. It is not until things start getting on the Australian coastline does the couple realize the power of nature over man.
Long Weekend has one of the most beautiful settings I have ever seen in a film. The Australian beach featured in the film looks like it has yet to be tampered by the corrosive hands of man. The water is of a pure dazzling blue that looks quite inviting to anyone that enjoys swimming. If someone were to flip through television channels and catch Long Weekend for a second, they might think that they are watching a nature documentary. The cinematographer of the film was not goofing around trying to shoot another “B” grade “nature attacks” film while shooting Long Weekend. The aesthetically pleasing nature of the film works in splendid contrast to the anti-nature attitude of the married couple.
The woman is found out in the film to have an abortion. Not only has the couple denied the law of nature, but the reality of their own nature. The couple are the quintessential products of abstractive intellectualism and rootless cosmopolitanism. They are products of the death of western culture and the decline of civilization. It is no surprise that the birthrates of Europeans and people of European descent are dropping with each generation of the world. When one no longer feels their roots, their purpose of existence ceases to be. The married couple in Long Weekend are incapable of creating a family (let alone staying together), shun respecting natural law, and cannot sustain themselves without material objects. In a sense, nature puts them out of their misery.
I was reminded of Long Weekend recently after watching the exciting and intense British horror film Eden Lake. The couple featured in the latter not only lack a connection with nature but also the sometimes viciousness of the man of nature who has yet to be deracinated from his “backwoods” roots. Both Long Weekend and Eden Lake feature a couple's demise due to their killing of an animal(s). Although man has dominated animal, it seems that man forgets that he is also an animal. It only takes a long weekend (or a few minutes) for a man to fare against nature and its various exotic creatures.
-Ty E
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